


A Nice Normal Evening

by FernDavant



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-18
Updated: 2010-12-18
Packaged: 2017-10-13 18:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/140305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FernDavant/pseuds/FernDavant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Percy wanted to do was take Annabeth out for a nice, normal evening. He should have known better in hindsight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nice Normal Evening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lunarknightz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarknightz/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide Lunarknightz! I hope you enjoy. Thanks to minkhollow for beta-ing.

Percy fiddled with his laptop impatiently, trying to get it to connect, waiting for Annabeth to notice on her laptop that he was trying to get hold of her. Finally, after a minute, she must have noticed, as her face showed up in a little box on the screen. She looked tired; her face was smudged with paint and dust. However, despite her obvious exhaustion, she also looked happy. She had that glint in her eyes that she always had when she was doing something she really loved. She gave him a smile.

"Hey, Percy," Annabeth said.

"Hey," Percy replied, giving a crooked grin in response. "You're looking good."

"Don't lie." Annabeth huffed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes in the process, "I look like a mess. I've spent all day supervising construction in Olympus. I'm dirty and I smell."

"You can't smell over laptops," Percy quipped. "And you look fine."

"Any particular reason you wanted to talk to me, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked; her sarcasm was friendly, though. "Or did you just want to compliment the dishevelled look I have going on?"

"Ah," Percy said, trying not to be nervous. He fought monsters for a living. He could ask his girlfriend out on a date. After all, they'd been going together for a couple of months now, hadn't they? "I just wanted to know if you were free Saturday."

"Well, I think we'll be through with the eastern portion by then, but we might have to measure some pillars for the new garden in the center park area," Annabeth said, frowning in concentration. She was clearly distracted, absorbed by her architectural work.

It would have been endearing if it hadn’t mean that Percy wasn’t going to see her.

"Oh," Percy said, trying to hide his disappointment. "It's just I don't get to see you that often, now that school's out again and you're putting every waking minute into getting Olympus back up and running. I mean, I can't even visit you. The Gods have this crazy idea that I might wreck the place."

Annabeth's eyes widened, "You mean you wanted to go out somewhere?"

Percy rolled his eyes. For someone so smart, Annabeth could be dense sometimes. "Yeah, of course I wanted to go out. I thought we could have a date. Do something normal together."

"Normal?"

"Well, yeah. Something that people our age do. Something that doesn't involve fighting mythical creatures and hoping that today isn’t the day that we die."

"I think I can make time for you, Percy. I don't think you should hold out for normal, though. Anything with you's going to be weird."

Percy stuck out his tongue at her, childishly. He was secretly relieved that she’d accepted his offer, though.

"Alright, Wise Girl. Maybe I won't take you out." Nothing wrong with playing a little hard to get, was there?

"Percy! Don't be that way."

"Relax, I was teasing,” Percy said, trying to make the face his mother always called the ‘lady killer.’ “So…Saturday…would you like to go to Jersey?"

"Jersey? Why can't you just take me out somewhere closer, maybe near the Empire State Building after I finish working on Olympus?"

"Simple. I'm taking you to Jersey because it's quite a drive. And that means that I will get to drive the Prius," Percy said with a smirk. Ever since he'd gotten his license, he looked for every excuse to take the car for a spin. He'd even tried to take it into battle once. He would’ve managed it as well, if Chiron hadn’t raised his objections. "You should see it. We finally got the hoof prints out."

"Fine, just don't get us killed."

"I'm an excellent driver, " Percy protested, "I've got hand-eye coordination, and everything."

Annabeth ignored that comment, " What, specifically, was your plan for Jersey anyway?"

"I thought we could eat at this really fancy seafood restaurant I found out about on the Internet. Then there's an aquarium, a boardwalk with all those silly games, and even a beach. It's all run by the same company and in the same complex of buildings. It’s new, too."

Percy opened up another tab in his laptop, and took a look at the website he'd just been looking at.

"’Sphinx Entertainment,’” he quoted, “'your one stop for fun on the Shore!' Sounds neat, right?"

"It...actually kind of does," Annabeth said, smiling, "I'm impressed, Seaweed Brain. You actually put some thought into this!"

“So?" Percy asked. "Is it a deal?"

"Sounds good. You can pick me up from the apartment my dad's renting while I do the work in Olympus. Say...5 pm, Saturday? That should get us enough time to get to Jersey before it's too late."

"Great," Percy said, rubbing his hands together in glee. "I'll talk to you soon, then. Bye, Wise Girl."

"See you around, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth responded, before the image of her leaned forward, clicked a button, and disappeared from Percy's laptop.

________________________________________

If anyone had asked him, he’d deny it, but Percy was a wreck on Saturday. He’d gone out with Annabeth before, but this was their first serious, adult date. He wasn’t taking her to see Zombie Blood II. He was taking her to a fancy restaurant, the kind where the menus didn’t show the prices in case that scared you off. He’d done a lot of research to find this place, and all of Sphinx Entertainment’s offerings, really. In fact, he’d done more work on this than on any single piece of schoolwork all year.

Percy’s commitment was even more evident in the fact that he’d asked for permission before borrowing the car, combed his hair and ironed the dark purple dress shirt he was wearing (only burning himself twice in the process, and that would heal, he was invincible after all), and finally, picked Annabeth up precisely on time. He didn’t even make a big deal out of the fact that she was wearing a skirt.

Not much of a big deal, anyway.

“What?” Annabeth asked, exasperated, after the hundredth time Percy had shot a sideways glance towards her as they road down Garden State Parkway.

“Nothing,” Percy said, returning his eyes to the road, “It’s just…I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a skirt. It’s weird.”

“Weird?”

“No! Good. I mean. It’s girly.”

“You didn’t think I was girly before?” Annabeth asked, sounding more amused than offended.

“No. I mean yeah, I thought you were girly. I just thought you were the kind of girl who could kick my butt, though. This is good, too. I like it.”

Annabeth blushed. “You did say the restaurant was expensive. I was just dressing the part.”

Percy blushed himself, looked down, remembered that he was driving, and looked back up at the road again.

About an hour later, Percy found that they were pulling into a town that wasn’t so much a town as it was a trademark. Everywhere you looked, it said Sphinx. There was the Sphinx Hotel, Sphinx BBQ, Sphinx Club, Sphinx Gift Shop, Sphinx General Store, Sphinx Theater, Sphinx Arcade. All of these buildings were shiny, with bright paint that hadn’t yet been exposed to the pollution or humidity of New Jersey, and the bland, almost prefabricated architecture that said the whole thing had been built very quickly, very efficiently, and very recently.

“Well,” Annabeth said, looking through the Prius’ windows, “This is…uniform.”

“Yeah,” Percy said, “The website said that this town went bankrupt due to the recession, so the citizens voted to sell most of the land to Sphinx Entertainment to let them build up a vacation spot.”

“That’s kind of horrible,” Annabeth said.

“The citizens seem pretty happy.” Percy shrugged. “’Course, that’s just what the Sphinx Entertainment website says…”

Percy drove around until he found their first destination: Sphinx Seafood. Annabeth began to feel a little less anxious about their trip to Sphinxland when she saw it. Percy was right; it did look nice. The restaurant was populated by couples, most much older than Percy and Annabeth, but to the server’s credit, they weren’t made to feel uncomfortable, and were seated on the patio where they were favored by a nice ocean breeze and a piano player.

The food proved to be really good, as well, although Percy went with the turf rather than the surf. Ever since he’d found out he was Poseidon’s son, eating seafood seemed a little…cannibalistic. He didn’t say that to Annabeth, of course, who really enjoyed the shrimp scampi. He also didn’t mention that Annabeth looked really pretty, lit as she was only by the candlelight which flickered in the breeze as they sat on the patio. Instead, he talked with Annabeth about school, movies, TV - anything and everything that wasn’t Greek or to do with being a half-blood. They dared each other to order a bottle of wine to see if their waiter would let them have it without carding them. Neither of them did, though. They were both secretly afraid that they’d get caught, and then their adventure playing as normal grown-ups for the night would end and they would be seventeen-year-old half-blood outcasts again.

After a while Percy paid the bill and tipped the waiter. He and Annabeth made their way back to the car, with Annabeth holding his hand, leaning on him.

“Where do you want to go now?” Percy asked, trying to fight the urge to tilt his head a little and steal a kiss from Annabeth. Instead, he started, absurdly, to quote Sphinx Entertainment’s website. “Sphinx Entertainment aims to please! Visitors of all ages can enjoy the theater, aquarium, or shopping! Stay the night! Sphinx Entertainment has a five star hotel and a vivacious nightlife—“

“You should definitely check out the nightlife,” a voice said.

Percy and Annabeth both jolted and spun around to see where the voice came from.

The voice belonged to a guy a little older than Percy and Annabeth who had slicked back hair and pimples all over his face; he was wearing a white t-shirt and tight black jeans. In his hands, flapping in the wind, were a bunch of flyers.

“You gotta go to Sphinx Club!” he said, very enthusiastically, pressing flyers first into Percy’s hands, then Annabeth’s.

“Yeah, er, thanks,” Percy said, nearly letting his flyer be swept away by the wind, thinking of Grover, and then stuffing it in his pocket instead, “Maybe we’ll go.”

“No!” the pimply guy said. “You WILL go. You HAVE to go. The Sphinx Club. It’s super amazing.”

“We, uh, we don’t even know where it is, and we’re—“ Annabeth began, trying to be polite.

“It’s right over there,” the guy said, pointing to what was, by far, the biggest building. It was built like a warehouse, only most warehouses didn’t have massive neon lights flashing around them. “Can’t miss it. Biggest place in town.”

“Cool,” Percy said, trying to walk away, “Maybe we’ll check it out.”

The guy ran in front of Percy and Annabeth, blocking their path. “Just go. Please. Look, man, I know you think it’s lame, but my boss will kill me if you don’t go. You HAVE to go to this club.”

“We’re sorry about your boss—“ Annabeth said.

“PLEASE!” the guy said, his voice shrill, his eyes actually full of tears. “You don’t know my boss! Just go, okay?”

Annabeth and Percy glanced at each other, totally confused. This guy was seriously weird and obviously a fan of the hard sell technique.

“Okay,” Annabeth said, smiling politely in that way you smile reassuringly at toddlers and senile people. “We’ll totally go to Sphinx Club. It sounds awesome.”

“Thanks. Oh. God, yeah, thanks,” the guy said, relief all over his face.

Percy and Annabeth shared another look with each other, but the guy didn’t notice. Already his eyes were locked on another couple who had just exited the restaurant. He was already jogging into their direction, holding out a flyer and calling, “You guys should totally go to Sphinx Club!”

“That was weird,” Percy said, pulling the flyer out of his pocket and giving it another once over.

“Really weird.”

“Almost like a…my half-blood senses are tingling weird. A ‘we should check it out’ weird,” Percy said. “I mean, if you want to. I know I said normal, and normal is really good and…“

Percy trailed off; Annabeth had taken the clutch purse she had been carrying and unzipped it, and was showing him the contents. It was empty, save for a worn Yankees baseball cap and a knife.

Percy grinned, reached into the pocket of his dress khakis and pulled out what appeared to be a pen.

“You can take the camper out of Camp Half-Blood,” Percy started.

“But you can’t take Camp Half-Blood out of the camper,” Annabeth finished.

________________________________________

Three hours waiting in line put a damper on any excitement Percy might have found in the thought of fighting something big and scary that might be behind Sphinx Entertainment’s operations. All the adrenaline had pumped out of his body, and Percy was beginning to think that they shouldn’t have bothered with trying to get into Sphinx Club and instead taken a walk on the beach. However, the young man’s genuine fright at the thought of his boss made Percy determined to check this out. He was stubborn. Some might call that a “fatal flaw.”

However, waiting in line, packed like sardines next to a bunch of other young adults, listening to the pounding music - it was all starting to wear a little thin.

Annabeth was clearly thinking the same thing, “You sure this is a good idea, Percy?”

“No,” Percy admitted, “but that was weird. Really weird. I want to check it out.”

“What if they don’t even let us in? It might be over-18 or over-21.”

“I’ll find a way in,” Percy said. Many a teacher had reminded him that he was a juvenile delinquent. He just might have to prove it. “We just check it out and leave.”

“Are you sure this isn’t one of those times where you do things before you think about them and then we’re in deadly danger before you know it?”

“I don’t do that!”

“You do that all the time.”

“But,” Percy protested, frowning, “I don’t do it intentionally.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she was smiling at him.

Just then, the line shuffled forward. Percy hadn’t been paying attention, but now the only thing standing between him and the entrance was a burly security guard.

“Hello,” Percy said, because he talked too much when he was nervous. “My name’s Percy.”

The security guard shot a glare at him, put a hand up to the earpiece in his ear and then mumbled something, turning away from Percy as he did so.

“Maybe we should just try to sneak past him straight off the bat,” Percy whispered to Annabeth.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Annabeth admitted, pulling out her Yankees cap. “You wanna be the distraction, Seaweed Brain?”

Percy really didn’t. The guy was about 6’3’’ and stacked. He’d fought Gods and bathed in the River Styx, but that didn’t mean that a punch wouldn’t hurt. Still, this would be their chance.

“All right,” Percy nodded, before stepping towards the guy. “Hey, shit-breath!”

“WAIT!” the security guard bellowed, flinging both his arms out, one catching Annabeth before she got her cap on, the other catching Percy. “You can’t go in yet. Go in when I tell you.”

“Real smooth,” Annabeth hissed.

“I—um—what?” Percy asked, looking dumbfounded.

“You go in when I tell you. Not till then. Just hold on a bit. Wait until I’m told I can let you in.”

“Aren’t you going to card us?” Percy asked, because, again, he couldn’t shut up when he was nervous.

Now it was the guard’s turn to look nervous. He actually shuffled his feet and examined his hands. “No. I. Yeah. No carding. Stop asking questions! I’m just doing what my boss says.”

Percy glanced back to Annabeth again.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “It just got weird again, didn’t it?”

“Yep,” Percy nodded, unable to contain his smile.

The security guard went stiff all of a sudden, putting his hand to his earpiece. “Huh, yeah? Let the next group in? Really? That was quick. Must’ve been dumb. Yeah, I get it. They’re all dumb.” He locked eyes with Percy and Annabeth. “You two. You the next group?”

Percy nodded.

“Right. Go on in,” the security guard said.

Percy led the way in, pretending that he didn’t notice Annabeth had a hold of his hand and was squeezing it tightly. After being under the flashing neon lights and the night lamps outside the club, stepping into the dark of the club itself was disorienting. Percy was blinded, temporarily, before his eyesight adjusted to the dimly lit club. He blinked a few times. The first thing he understood was why the Sphinx Club was housed in a giant warehouse. The second thing he understood was who was behind Sphinx Entertainment.

In front of him was the gigantic face of a woman, a face at least ten feet tall. The woman was blonde with high cheekbones, a prominent nose, and a haughty look. She also had the body of a lion, over which were folded giant, silky looking wings that would have made Blackjack jealous.

“Oh,” Percy said. “Sphinx.”

“That’s me, darling,” the Sphinx said, smiling and waving a giant paw at him.

“I thought you were Egyptian,” Percy said.

The Sphinx shrugged, her giant lion’s shoulders bunching her blonde hair around her neck. “I travel.”

“To Jersey?” Annabeth asked.

“It’s a living.”

Percy, sick of this talk, took out Riptide, uncapped it, and watched as the sword sprang forth from its hilt. “Not anymore it’s not.”

“Oh, that’s delightful timing you have. I do love a witty hero.”

“Percy, don’t,” Annabeth said, putting a hand on his shoulder as he was about to charge at the Sphinx.

“What?” Percy asked, bewildered, turning to face Annabeth, “She’s a giant monster. I’m a hero. I kill her. That’s how this works.”

“Not this time, love,” the Sphinx laughed. She had a beautiful laugh, really. She was quite attractive, as far as women with wings and lion’s bodies went.

Annabeth shook her head. “Don’t you know the story of the Sphinx?”

“Not…really,” Percy admitted.

“The Gods sent the Sphinx down to punish Thebes. The Sphinx then began feeding on all the youths until a hero came. The way it works is that the Sphinx can eat you unless you beat her by answering her riddle correctly,” Annabeth explained.

“And then what?” Percy said.

“And then I throw myself off a cliff, or something suitably dramatic,” the Sphinx shrugged. “The Gods work in mysterious ways. But I am an honorable creature, so them’s the rules. You answer my riddle correctly, I kill myself. You answer incorrectly, I make you into dinner. Well, another dinner.”

The Sphinx paused to let out a very unlovely burp. “Kids these days. So stupid. And greasy.”

“What if we don’t want to play your game?” Percy asked defiantly.

“Then I eat you.” The Sphinx shrugged. “I’m super fast, and I’m always hungry. You don’t want to mess with me, love.”

Percy was a little infuriated, but he had a good idea of what he was dealing with here. If she was anywhere near as fast as some other monsters he’d met, it might be better just to answer the riddle and be done with it, rather than to wait if invincibility meant that he’d still be conscious while being digested.

“Fine, Annabeth will answer your riddle.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” the Sphinx said, tossing her hair. “I know a child of Athena when I see one. I’m going with you - the dumb, shouty one.”

“You can’t do that—“ Percy protested, moving again to charge.

Before he’d done anything, he was trapped under a paw. He instantly worried about Annabeth, imagining she was suffering from a similar fate. Riptide had flown out of his hand when he was crushed against the floor and was just out of reach. She really was fast. “This is how it works: if you don’t answer, I eat both of you; if you answer incorrectly, I eat both of you; if you answer correctly, I go jump off a cliff. Now. How dumb and shouty are you really?”

Percy mumbled, “I’ll answer your riddle.”

“Good,” the Sphinx said, lifting her paw. As he stood, Percy saw that Annbeth had been pinned under the Sphinx’s tail.

“Are you all right?” Percy asked, rushing towards her.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Annabeth mumbled, pushing her hair out of her eyes, before giving Percy a hug. “You can do this, Percy. It’s just a riddle.”

Percy nodded seriously, not entirely letting go of Annabeth as he turned to face the sphinx. “Alright. What’s your riddle?”

The sphinx smiled coolly, showing teeth that didn’t belong in a face that was otherwise so human. “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?”

Annabeth squeaked and clapped her hand over her mouth when she heard the riddle.

“Don’t tell him,” the Sphinx bellowed, “or I eat you both.”

Percy glanced from Annabeth to the Sphinx and back again. “You know this, don’t you?” Percy said to Annabeth; she still had her hands clapped over her mouth, but she nodded, eyes wide. “Not just that…but you didn’t think about it. You’d heard it before. So…so…I mean.”

“Wait,” Percy said, turning to face the Sphinx full on. “Thebes. Not the Egyptian Thebes, but the Greek Thebes. I may have only been half-listening in class, but I was listening. I know this too! The Riddle of the Sphinx. They taught us this in school. It’s a stupid riddle, ‘cause it’s not really a riddle. You have to believe that a man’s life is like the morning, noon, and night,” Percy shook his head, “That’s stupid. Not as stupid as using the same riddle that you’re famous for thousands of years afterwards, but pretty stupid.”

The Sphinx’s eyes widened. “No,” she whispered.

“The answer is man,” Percy said, grinning, “A man crawls when he’s born, walks when he’s an adult, and when he’s old, he uses a cane. Four, two, and three legs.”

“NO! You shouldn’t know that!” the Sphinx moaned, rearing up on her hind legs. “No one reads the Classics anymore! I should’ve been safe!”

Percy and Annabeth both backed up, avoiding the Sphinx’s massive paws as her wings began to flap. The building began to shake as, with a great scraping sound, the Sphinx flew off, taking the warehouse’s ceiling with her. Percy crouched down over Annabeth protectively as the debris from the ceiling rained down upon them. He took the chance to look up. Flying in the inky night sky was the Sphinx. She was whirling around in apparent consternation, bellowing at the top of her rather sizable lungs, “Heroes! I hate heroes! AUGH! Where am I going to find a cliff in New Jersey!?”

She disappeared from site a couple of minutes later, but Percy could still hear the screaming and pandemonium outside.

Percy turned to Annabeth. “Let’s get out of here.”

Percy and Annabeth ran off in the opposite direction from which they’d come. The last thing they needed was to talk to the security guard again. They made their way through the building until they found a fire exit toward the back. They ran out the fire exit, as Percy tried not to think about why a building housing a massive Sphinx even needed a fire exit in the first place. Percy and Annabeth kept running until they almost ran out of land. Percy paused to catch his breath and looked around him. They were on the beach, under a pier, the pier that probably housed Sphinx Boardwalk.

“Nice,” Percy said, grinning tiredly at Annabeth, huffing and puffing from the running. “A walk on the beach. Romantic. Normal.”

“Yeah, normal,” Annabeth said, unable to contain her giggles.

Before they could stop themselves, they were both laughing, falling on each other, leaning against one of the massive wooden pillars that held up the boardwalk.

“Did you get Riptide?” Annabeth asked.

“No,” Percy said. “Which means it should be in my pocket again, right…about…now.”

Percy pulled the pen out of his pocket, and Annabeth laughed again.

“I’m sorry things didn’t turn out normal,” Percy said after a few moments of silence.

“Actually,” Annabeth said, turning to face Percy, making Percy realize how close they were sitting together, “from what I’ve seen of it, normal seems kind of boring.”

Percy could feel Annabeth’s breath on his face. They were so close, shoulder-to-shoulder and half turned towards each other. He threw caution to the wind and leaned in and kissed her like he’d wanted to do all night - fervently, thoroughly, and with tongues. A nice, normal kiss.

Eventually they broke off the kiss. Annabeth lingered close to him for a moment, then rested her head on his shoulder.

“I don’t think Sphinx Boardwalk is going to be sticking around too much longer now that its supernatural financial backer has gone,” Annabeth said, her cheek pressed against the soft fabric of Percy’s dress shirt.

“Yeah, me neither. I think they’re probably evacuating the whole place. No carnival games for us.”

“No,” Annabeth said quietly.

“I did promise you a walk on the beach, though,” Percy said, hesitantly. “And we are on a beach. How would you like a walk?”

Annabeth lifted her head from Percy’s shoulder, smiled at him, and kissed him on the cheek. “I would love a walk, Seaweed Brain.”

“Excellent,” Percy said, getting to his feet, and offering her a hand to help her up. “Let’s walk. If you’re lucky I might even show you the trick to surfing without a surfboard.”

“Is that one of those tricks that can only be accomplished when you’re the son of Poseidon?” Annabeth asked, amused, as they began to walk down the beach, their interlaced hands swinging between them.

“It might be, Wise Girl,” Percy said, “It might be.”


End file.
